Idlemild

Is Idlewild a soundtrack supporting a movie or is the film little
more than cross-media product promoting the latest OutKast album? More
importantly, does it really matter? While earning points for audacious
diversity, moving from Parliament-inspired funk to Cab Calloway-style skat,
this quasi-soundtrack is a wildly unfocused work that lacks a transcendent
set of tunes to trump its shortcomings. Simply put, Idlewild is more
idle than it is wild, an expression of tank-empty creativity from a duo and
production team that, a mere half-decade ago, couldn’t make a false musical
step.

Not that OutKast’s inevitable demise wasn’t presaged by 2001’s
Greatest
Hits release. Principals Big Boi and Andre 3000 revealed just how far
their creative and personal directions were heading with the
separate-but-equal solo releases
Speakerboxxx
/The Love Below, which proved to be far more successful commercially
than artistically. Idlewild probably won’t move anywhere near the
units that double-shot produced (though it will hardly languish in the
cutout bins), primarily because there are no tracks on par with “The Way You
Move” or “Hey Ya!”

The most frustrating aspect of Idlewild is its lack of energy,
especially in contrast with back-to-back brash, inventive masterpieces
Aquemini and Stankonia, which brimmed over with an infectious
kineticism. Though Idlewild is but a few minutes longer than either
of those efforts, it feels twice as long, especially given its nearly
nine-minute closer, the too-aptly named grating noise drone “A Bad Note.”

Not that there aren’t inspired moments. The carefree rap of “Morris Brown,”
and a pair of tracks (“Call the Law” and “In Your Dreams”) featuring the
gorgeous pipes of Janelle Monáe, salvage something from the wreckage of a
work bloated with too many guest stars and ideas careening in diametrically
unrelated directions. And you’d think, for a piece tied to a movie, there’d
be more direct references to and about the actual film, set in the South
during the Great Depression.

But aside from “You're Beautiful,” a snippet from the film, and the
period-flavored “When I Look in Your Eyes,” Idlewild barely touches
on its ostensible raison d'etre. It’s noteworthy that most of the tracks
dealing with the film (like the aforementioned pair) are Andre 3000 efforts,
whereas Big Boi’s pieces seem completely disinterested in the plot or themes
of the flick. Exhibit A: “Peaches,” a solid track with electronic
flourishes, easy flow and modern braggadocio. If Speakerboxxx / The Love
Below echoed the initial crack in the Big Boi/Andre partnership,
Idlewild tolls like the San Andreas Fault. It’s just a shame an album
and film had to be made after the two had reached their creative peak
together.

On “Chronomentrophobia,” Andre says “It’s beginning to look a lot like an
ending.” Not the beginning, Andre -- just the end.